Not Alone
by Jasmine-N-Leaves
Summary: Spock discovers something on-board the Enterprise that changes all their lives. Rated T for the occasional potty mouth. Story 1 of 4 with my OC.
1. Questions

So, this idea popped into my head. And won't leave me alone. And I totally blame my friends who suggested I watch The Original Series of Star Trek for my current craving of the associated FanFic. This story is set after they relaunch _The Enterprise_ at the end of Beyond. I now get so many of the mentions from the movies and the many stories I have read. I hope you like this story. I know, super short, but I have mostly written this one, so the next chapter will be longer.

To those who are reading my other stories, I will get back to them, when the muse associated with them returns.

* * *

Spock looked up from talking to Captain James 'Jim' Tiberius Kirk as they discussed what they were looking at on the PADD as a voice sing-songed in front of them.

"Mooontgooomery. Looky what Iiii found!" Lieutenant Sam Winchester, Enterprise's new navigator called out to Scott. In her arms, she held a brown and tan dog.

Spock raised an eyebrow in controlled shock as Jim's jaw dropped at the _Enterprise's_ CEO's next words.

"Is that Porthos?!"

"Admiral Archer's prized beagle? Yes." She said, handing the old boy off to the man responsible for his accidentally-on-purpose transportation to the planet upon which they were just finishing their shore leave.

The next few minutes were mixed with the giddy sounds of laughter from Scott and Winchester. As Dr McCoy passed, she called out "Oy, McCoy, I've got a bone to pick with you!" Spock saw the doctor cringe and wondered what had caused it.

"I wish she'd choose." Kirk said as he signed the PADD and handed it back to Spock.

"Captain?" Commander Spock said, tilting his head in confusion.

Jim waved his hand in the direction of the Lieutenant. "Between Bones and Scotty. She's been hanging out with them ever since we left Yorktown and the betting pool is currently 50/50." Spock followed his captain as the other man walked past the pair as they petted and looked over the long missing canine. Spock had heard of the story and was glad that one of the protesters of LtC Scott being assigned to the _Enterprise_ would now be silenced.

"Are you insinuating that the crew are wagering on who Lieutenant Winchester will sleep with?" Spock asked as they walked. As they passed, Winchester tucked her loose brown hair behind her left ear, before fingering it loose again, covering it. An unconscious gesture he had observed she did when in the presence of either of the two men. But it was exposed long enough for Spock to see it. And it took all the control he had not to turn and confront her then and there. He managed to refocus on what Jim was saying about how the two men had gotten close to her pretty fast, and that she seemed to keep herself apart from everyone else. Spock now knew the reason, as well as to why the two men were as close to her as they were. They knew. He had seen her pointed ear.

She was Vulcan.

* * *

A/N: Ok, so a few abbreviations explained. Lt = Lieutenant, LtC = Lieutenant Commander. I'll be using these shorts throughout the story. If I pop others in, I'll explain them.


	2. Answers

A/N: So here's the next chapter. And what a whopper! I don't know the name of Archer's beagle, so I made one up. If there is anyone out there who does know it, let me know and I'll change it. Also, if someone could give me an approximation on how long it would take the ship to get back to Earth from where they are now, at Yorktown, it would help with something later in the story. Thanks.

A/N2: This is a REPOST! Thanks to Conners for letting me know about my slip with Krall and Krull. And thanks to Kaedn Miles for the name of Archer's dog, I must not have gotten to that episode yet.

* * *

Spock thought back to the circumstances that led to the woman being on the ship.

Checkov had left the _Enterprise_ after the incident with Krall. He had received a comm. about his grandfather being ill and was catching the next ship back to Earth a couple of months before the shakedown cruise of the newly relaunched Enterprise. After that, he said he would be staying there to be with his grandparents and take over the small farm they had.

Lieutenant Winchester had been one of the hundreds of new personnel that had been brought onboard after Krall. She had topped her class in every area, and was on Command Track. Her favourite and best area was navigation and Kirk had asked her to fill the young Russian's spot, though Spock could hear the anguish at having to replace the young man. He knew Jim had seen Checkov as a younger brother.

All these thoughts and many others were flowing through his mind as he sat on the bridge during Alpha shift as they left their latest shore leave planet. He was pouring over the data about her, as well as going over everything he knew about the woman. While she had only been on the ship for the past eight months, she was on Alpha shift. And that meant she interacted a lot with the other senior members of the crew.

She got on well with Sulu, even sparing with him in fencing, much to his great delight. She and Nyota were often heard conversing on one of the many languages she knew and laughing at something only they knew. Kirk was even seen playing a round of chess, or more often than not, poker with her, and losing spectacularly. But to his knowledge, she had kept her distance from him, without making it seem like she had.

Another thing was that she had made Dr McCoy smile, something that Jim had said hadn't happened in a long time with anyone other than his daughter, Joanna. He knew how the Doctor knew, the routine medical for all personnel he did when they left port. But he didn't know how the CEO knew.

He noticed her hair was always styled to cover her ears, and she had a fringe that was cut low enough to hide her eyebrows. He wondered how she, a Vulcan, was able to emulate being a human. He was unaware of any comms. from New Vulcan about sending someone onboard and he wondered if and why he had been kept in the dark. Was she here to keep an eye on him? On the crew? Was she even Vulcan; were the ears fake to fool McCoy and Scott and anyone else that saw them?

The end of Alpha shift finally came and Spock followed Winchester from the bridge. After a few moments, she came across McCoy.

"You stood me up planetside, McCoy."

"What? I'm sorry I …" Spock watched as the normally unflappable Doctor stuttered until she placed her hands on his shoulders for a brief moment. He noticed that she always wore gloves, only the tip of the index finger of her right hand showing to allow usage of the PADDs. Her medical records stated an over-sensitive nervous system.

"Relax." She chuckled as she continued "I forgot to tell you to, thinking I already had." They turned away and headed for a turbo lift. He stopped then as he realised that she would soon notice him, or someone else would call out to him and alert her. After that, he headed to his quarters and showered. After a meal in the mess, watching Winchester interact with Scott and McCoy; he retired to his room once more. He apoligised to Nyota for not spending time with her that night, stating that he wanted to go over new information about the plant life on several of the planets they had been to in the past few weeks. Instead, he sat and meditated on everything he knew about her. Finally coming to a decision, he stood and left his room.

The one thing he had come to learn about humans, was that they did not like to be woken in the early hours of the morning. And that they were unable to put together anything even remotely like a lie. With that in mind, he buzzed Lt Winchester's door.

The expected mumble did not come from its occupant. "Who is it?" The voice was clear, and sounded wide awake, making him pause.

"Commander Spock. I …" He was about to continue when the door opened, revealing the Lt hurriedly pulling on her jacket, her hair loose to cover her ears.

"What's going on?" She asked, as she went to step out of her room.

"Nothing in terms of the ship. Lieutenant, I have some questions for you." He gestured back into her room.

Winchester stood a moment, arms half in the jacket. "So you thought that getting the answers at three in the morning was a good idea?" She shrugged the jacket on before staring at him.

"I have found that this is the best time as people find it hard to concentrate and form coherent sentences." Spock replied. She was remarkable alert for someone he had just woken up. Even Jim was sleep bound for several minutes until coffee worked through his system.

She looked at him a moment, a puzzled look on her face then she stepped back from her door and allowed Spock to proceed her in. "What do you want? Commander." She tagged on his title after a pause, remembering that he was her superior and still allowing her to show her annoyance.

Spock took a moment to look around the room. It was similar to what other humans had in their rooms. Even the room was at human temperature and gravity. He was starting to think that she was a human who had gotten fake Vulcan ears; the reason was still eluding him.

"Where do you come from, Lieutenant? Your file states that you didn't have a permanent home." He eventually said, still wondering the room.

"My dad and I moved around a lot. He, did a lot of contract work, clearing places of, undesirables." She seemed hesitant to talk about that, if her hesitation was anything to by. Making a note of that, he continued.

"What made you join Starfleet?"

She took a moment to look at him, and she must have seen something as she went on the defensive. "Commander, no disrespect, but if you wish to ask me something, ask it. Don't beat around the bush."

Thinking that the phrase 'beat around the bush' meant 'get to the point', he did so. Standing in front of the door, in case she ran, he asked. "Very well. Who did the surgery that gave you those ears and what do you have on Doctor McCoy and Lieutenant Commander Scott to keep them from informing the Captain and myself?". While he was expecting her to try and run, a logical response, or to back away in shock, he was shocked at her actual response.

She stood still a moment, before charging him; pinning him to the door behind him, an arm across his throat. A rumbling growl, almost a snarl, came from her throat. It caused him to pause a moment. He hadn't factored this type of response into his equations. That and she actually had the strength of a Vulcan. She managed to keep one arm pinned as he tried to move it.

"When did you see them? Have you told anyone?" She growled, pressing her arm tighter against his neck.

Realising he was in a slightly precarious position, one twitch and she would snap his neck, he decided to answer honestly. "No, I have not told anyone, I am simply trying to ascertain how a Vulcan can be aboard this ship without my knowledge. And what your intentions are." He looked into her eyes, as he answered the other question. "I saw your ear when you found Admiral Archer's beagle. You have a habit of tucking your hair behind them before fingering it loose again when in the presence of Dr McCoy or LtC Scott." He added the last bit in the hope of informing her that he was simply curious as to her motives.

She looked into his eyes a moment and Spock could see a struggle within hers. "I was raised as a human on Earth. I know nothing of my Vulcan heritage other than what my father has been able to tell me and what I've been able to find and read." She said as she stepped back, releasing him. "I would prefer it if you wouldn't tell anyone."

"Captain Kirk needs to be informed of your heritage so that should a situation arise, he is adequately informed. As does the New Vulcan council." Spock said calmly as he straightened his shirt.

"No."

"Lieutenant…"

"NO! I'll tell the Captain, when it suits me or if it's needed. But not until then. And as for the Vulcan's, if they weren't already going through it, I'd tell them that they can go to hell. My Vulcan mother died giving birth to me and her father didn't even want to see me before forcing my father to leave the planet. Dad told them I had died as well and asked to bury me on Earth so as to keep a piece of her with him. They never bothered to check to see if I was alive. They never approved of the marriage." She sat down, setting a teapot to boil on a small stove and got out two cups.

Spock was taken aback at the venom in her voice. With the loss of Vulcan and so many of her residents, logically, they would welcome the knowledge of another. He wondered how he had never been told of another human/Vulcan marriage. Let alone how it had never come up in his teachings, considering his parentage. She seemed only a few years older than him, and again wondered how such a thing had been kept from him.

Seeing that she was willing to entertain the notion of giving him some answers, he joined her at the small table. He had the feeling that she would only give him answers if he gave some in return. _Quid pro quo_ , as it was known.

"Computer, Vulcan settings. What was it like growing up as you did? Did you struggle to control your human emotions?" She asked as she slid a cup toward him.

Spock looked at the lighting and took a deep breath of the air as the room adjusted to the settings he had not used within his own room for many years. He looked at her, an eyebrow raised in question.

"I think you know how this is going to work." She said as she took a drink.

Spock followed her actions, surprised at the drink. It was something that only Vulcans, and very few humans liked, Jim being one of them. He let the spices flood him with memories of drinking it with his mother before he set the cup down. He told her of his struggles with his control, how he managed his emotions.

She in turn told him of growing up in Australia, the only place remaining on Earth that had temperatures similar enough to the Vulcan climate. She held back on what her father had done for work, other than it involved a lot of fighting, and while Spock could tell this, he could also tell of the immense pride she had of him and his work. He asked what had brought her to Starfleet.

"My father died several years ago. He wanted me to have a different life to what he had. To what I grew up doing. So, Starfleet it was. Can't get much different than this." She said as she closed her eyes and took a deep. The air filters were creating the smell and atmospheric conditions of the planet he had lost several years before.

Spock made the decision to say "With as few Vulcans left as there is, the council will no doubt welcome you now."

"Is Dlece still one of them?" She asked without opening her eyes. This was her only link to a planet she would never set foot on, see from the bridge of a ship, feel the wind of. Learn from.

Logically, there would only be one reason to ask. "Yes. He was one of several I myself saved from the destruction of Vulcan. He was beamed aboard the Enterprise moments before." He waited a moment before continuing. "He is your grandfather."

"My Dad saved his daughter, T'hea, and almost lost his for it. She nursed him back to health. They fell in love during that time. My Dad didn't have anything to offer her. No money, position or anything of value to warrant the union. Logically, Dlece was right to disapprove. But my Dad and it turned out T'hea, didn't care. Told him point blank they would elope if he didn't let Dad return to Vulcan with them."

Spock raised an eyebrow at that. Vulcan daughters were disciplined to obey the wishes of their parental figures. She must have loved him very much to make such a statement.

"He gave up his life for her. The only thing he knew. He may not have had the strength of a Vulcan, but he was very logical in thinking and in fighting. He taught them things that they didn't see as necessary until he showed how that lack of knowledge could be dangerous."

Silence reigned for several minutes. Spock was once again enveloped by the air. He had never employed the settings since Vulcan was destroyed. If the other survivors could never again feel the temperature, smell the tang of the red dust, neither should he. But for Winchester, it was the only way for her to connect to a past, a piece of her heritage. "I noticed your gloves. How sensitive are you to the touch telepathy?"

Her eyes snapped open and looked at him. "Very." She reached out and touched his cup with her bare finger. It was there barely a second before she pulled back. "Your concern for the safety of the ship is admiral, Commander. I will do nothing to endanger it."

Spock was shocked that she was able to pick up what was a very small, almost inadmissible thought, from something that he had only been holding for a few moments. She was either very talented, or had not built up walls to block out things unless she wanted to feel them.

He came to a decision. "Would you like me to teach you something? Something that could only be taught by a Vulcan?" He was rewarded with a look of absolute shock on her face. She took a sharp breath in, almost knocking over her cup.

"You would do that?"

"We are the only two half Vulcans in existence. And you have been denied the opportunity to learn of your heritage. I will not tell the Council until you are ready. However I must insist that the Captain be informed." He watched as she took that in. Logically, he should tell the Council and the Captain regardless of her response, but he was letting his human half make a decision in allowing her the opportunity. When she was ready, he would take her to New Vulcan and re-introduce her to Dlece. He had heard that T'hea had died, but had never been told of the circumstances. He would have to ask his father, after the Lt had been brought before the Council.

"What would you teach me?" She asked after composing herself.

"I can teach you some techniques to shield yourself from what you touch. You would not need the gloves after that. However, when touching people, those shields may not work as effectively. Inanimate objects are unable to think for themselves." Spock said, knowing that would be the most beneficial thing he could teach her not only quickly, but would no doubt help her with her work. Laying out the benefits and shortcomings of such things would help her to make a decision. He noticed that she had avoided answering him about informing the Captain. He let it go for now. He would bring it back up at another time.

"That would be amazing. I've told people that I have hypersensitive nerves, and the gloves and long sleeves help to control it. Leon's got some medical word for it in case someone gets nosey." She looked at them a moment before looking back up at him.

Spock could see how much his proposal meant to her. "Leon?" He asked as the unfamiliar name reached him, even though he had a good idea.

"Dr McCoy."

"I can deduce how the Doctor came to know of your Vulcan half. What I am unable to work out is how LtC Scott came to know."

She dipped her head a moment before her face came up showing a hint of a smile and mischief in her eyes. "That is a story for the company of those whom it involves. I usually have a standing breakfast with Leon and Scotty every third morning in Scotty's office. Since he rarely uses it, it's pretty safe from being overheard. Join us and I might be able to convince them to tell you."

She stood and Spock was shocked to see that it was only a couple of hours until Alpha shift started at 8am. They had been talking for almost three hours. Keeping a lid on his surprise, he declined her invitation for that morning. He had plans to meet up with Nyota since he had cancelled his plan to spend time with her the night before. She nodded and told him that they met up around 0530-0600.


	3. Spock makes three

A/N: Hi there. I hope I've fixed all the mistakes from the first two chapters. Thanks to those who pointed them out. And I hope that I haven't got as many in this one. This story is unbeted (?) so its just me reading it a dozen times to make sure I've not missed anything. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I forgot to do this before, I DO NOT own Star Trek. Sam, however, is my creation.

I am not a Treky (I think is the term), and as such, I have used my limited knowledge of TOS and the latest movies to bring this about. Saying that, please forgive me for anything that is OOC.

* * *

The hallways were mostly empty nine days later as Spock made his way toward LtC Scott's office. At 0530, the only people awake were those on the bridge for Gamma shift, medical personal, those watching over the engines and a few restless crew.

He was carrying a tray of breakfast and to use the human emotion, hoping, that the Doctor and Chief Engineer would be welcoming of his inclusion into the little group. He intended to continue the conversation about informing the Captain. He knocked on the door to Scott's office, and heard the shushing of the man before it opened.

"Commanda Spock?! What canna do for you this morning?" He stood in the doorway, making it impossible to see inside.

"Scotty, let him in. I asked him to join us." Winchester said as she came into view behind the Scotsman, a bare hand touching him on the shoulder a moment before retreating. Scott allowed him in, with a slight glare, and he set his tray on the table before taking a seat beside her. Scott retook his seat, and Spock noticed that Porthos was curled between him and Keenser. Archer didn't want another trans warp-beaming incident, so the ship had a canine mascot until they next docked at a Starfleet base.

The lessons he had been giving her had been paying off. She was a quick study, he discovered and the Vulcan school he attended would have been pleased to have her as a student, if they allowed females into it. While they were limited in when they could meet each other, he had found that she was always up around 0430. She told him she had always woken with the sun. And in the summer months in Australia, that meant around 0400-0430.

She had made huge leaps in her studies, and from what he had given her to read, she had devoured almost all of it. As a lot of it was on subjects that were only for Vulcans to access, he had given her his PADD so as not to alert anyone about her. They had also met up for sparring practice. He had wanted to see what she knew and just what her limits were. So far, they had yet to find them.

He watched now as McCoy and Scott watched him warily, noting the same look of mischief in Winchester's eyes he had seen several days before. It occurred to him then that she had not informed the pair of the fact he now knew of her. She seemed to want to surprise them, although his time with one James T. Kirk had taught him that more than likely, she wanted to prank her fellow co-conspirators.

The meal started stiffly, with Scott and McCoy watching him when they thought he wasn't looking. Talk was limited to the mundane things such as how Scott's repairs of the damage from the meteor shower the month before were progressing, to Jim's latest allergic discovery; the new anti-biotic from Thais III had turned him an, interesting, shade of yellow. It still hadn't fully faded, a week later but at least that was the worse that had happened. Spock noticed that, while her actions and words were consistent with what the others were discussing, her forest green eyes were telling a different story. There was mirth in them, something he had seen often in Jim's sapphire blue ones, and it was waiting to burst out.

"Spock, care to spar with me? It's been a while since I've been able to use full my strength. Scotty and Leon are good partners, but, well, they can't handle my strength like you can." As she spoke, Winchester stood and tied her hair back, revealing her ears. Spock realised that she was allowing him in on the prank. He nodded and followed her to a cleared area, a former storage room behind Scott's office.

"Certainly, Lt. It has been a great many years since I have been able to spar with someone other than a human. It would be logical for us to practice together so that we are able to know what we are capable of should the situation arise that we encounter …" He didn't get to say anything further as a fist hit him on the jaw. He stepped back in surprise, looking at the Lt.

"Pretty sure the bad guys won't stop because of a few fancy words, Commander." She said as she lashed out again.

Spock reacted instinctively, hand darting in for a nerve pinch. It was blocked and knocked aside and a second later a back-leg-round-house kick struck his side. He raised his hands and took a couple of quick steps back, assessing her. So far, she was 2-0 in hits.

"That nerve pinch of yours is predictable to those who know you, or have studied Vulcans. You need to think of something new." She said as she struck out, changing her leading hand/foot mid-way through and catching him again with a flying front kick. He nodded at the tell and took a hand in the spar.

The next 45 seconds were fierce as she switched from Terra martial arts to Calithis hand slaps to Terra military hand-to-hand. She changed as soon as he picked up on what she was using and changed how he reacted to it. He was surprised at the skills she knew. Aside from the military hand-to-hand, the other styles had yet to come up in their lessons. They had so far been focused on helping her to control her touch telepathy. Which she seemed to have mastered.

He managed to land a flying side kick on her that sent her across the room. He lowered his leg and raced to make sure she wasn't hurt too badly. He was about to reach her but was blocked by an angry Georgian doctor and an irate Sottish engineer.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" McCoy snapped as he knelt down beside her.

"You could have killer her!" Scott yelled at the same time.

"I apologise, Dr McCoy. It has been some time since I have been able to spar at my full strength against a fellow Vulcan." Spock then caught sight of the older man's face, just as Winchester looked up and saw it and Scott's. Laughter roared out from the female.

"You… you should see your faces. Hahahahaha!" She managed to choke out between fits of laughter from her knees, before tipping sideways and landing back on the ground again, holding her sides. Spock had seen Jim do a similar motion when he had laughed as hard as she had, so knew it was 'good pain', as Jim had said at the time.

McCoy and Scott had identical looks of shock on their faces at not only his words 'fellow Vulcan', but no doubt at the fact that she knew that he knew. His lips quirked a little as he realised that the prank had been pulled with great success.

When her laughter had subsided enough several minutes later, they helped her back into her chair. The laughing fit had seemingly drained her. It wasn't until she had been seated that she hissed and clutched her ribs again.

"Ahhh, ohhh, ok, that hurt." She looked across the table at him as he retook his own seat. "Could have pulled that last kick a bit, Commander. Think you cracked one." Which set the doctor off. He was cussing up a storm as he pulled a tricorder from a bag that had accompanied him.

"Damn it, Sam. You thinking you've cracked a rib and not noticing it until now means that it's busted. Damn Vulcans and their insane pain thresholds." He glared at Spock. "What were you thinking of accomplishing with that kick?"

For once, Spock didn't have an answer, but it seemed that Winchester did.

"I'm thinking that we went a little too far with the prank. Sorry Leon, Scotty." She hissed as McCoy hit her with a hypo for the pain. "The Commander has known about me since I handed Porthos to you Scotty." That earned him another set of looks, only this time wary.

"What are ya gonna do, Commanda?" Scott asked, while McCoy squeezed her hand.

"He's letting me tell the Captain in my own time, guys." She said as she sat back and finished her breakfast.

"That was not what we agreed upon, Lt." He started, only to have her interrupt.

"I don't recall actually agreeing to anything like that, Commander. If you remember correctly, I never actually gave you an answer to that question."

The four of them looked at each other a moment, before Winchester sighed. "So, he's guessed that you (gesturing toward McCoy) figured me out during the crew physicals in that first month, but Spock doesn't know how Scotty and Keenser know."

Spock saw a sheepish grin break out on her face, chuckles from Scott and a growl, "Damn Vulcans" from the doctor. He settled himself into his chair. They still had another couple of hours until Alpha shift started, and he was guessing that this was a story worth hearing.

 _Start Flashback_

It was a couple of months into the trip and Scotty was fixing a coolant line for the life support system when a voice called out to him. It was so sudden, unexpected and close, that he dropped the spanner he was using to tighten the coupling. Keenser had to jump back suddenly to avoid being hit by the falling object. He glared at the taller man.

"Scotty?!" The voice was female, and Scotty was wondering who was looking for him at, he looked at his chronograph, 0130 in the bloody morning. Granted he was up then too, but that was beside the point. He had had a brainwave about what was wrong with the coolant line and needed to check it before it left his mind.

"Bloody hell. Sorry, wee man." He said as he stood and poked his head into the corridor where the voice had come from. "In here, lassie." He waited until the woman had looked toward him to wave her in. It was then that he recognised her. She was the new Alpha shift navigator.

"Sam? What are you doing down here at this hour of the morning?" He asked as she entered the conduit room. It was roughly 12 foot by 12 foot, full of converging lines of everything from air to zero-point energy.

"I couldn't sleep and someone mentioned that taking a walk around the nae-cells would help. I heard you cursing before." She added at the question he had been about to ask as to how she had known he was there. "Hello Keenser." She smiled at him and Scotty saw his eyes crinkle in return.

"Ah." That would have been when he was undoing the coupling. Some idiot had cross-threaded it then proceeded to tighten it as hard as they could when it wouldn't seal, thus destroying both the seal and coupling. He was going to have a look as to who it was that replaced the washers last time and write their ass up. "What can I do for you, lassie?" He continued, wiping his hands on a rag hanging from the back of his pants.

"I was hoping for a tour, but seeing as you're working, I'll wander around until I feel drowsy."

Scotty had liked her the moment he had seen her. They had gotten into a rather heated, but good natured, argument about the differences between turbo injectors and whether they gave better results in bigger engines, within the first couple of days aboard. Jim and McCoy had gotten between them, when they thought they were going to come to blows. They were going to throw PADDs at each other to prove their points, but in hindsight, Scotty could see that could have still ended up with one or both of them in the medbay.

As the weeks went on, he had seen that McCoy had his eyes on the brunette, emerald eyed lass; and knowing how hard it had been on the other man to allow another woman to get close to him since his divorce, he had stepped back. And he was glad he had. While Checkov had attentively listened to anything he taught him in awe, Winchester had argued, theorised and generally made him rethink every topic they discussed. Which would never have been as good if they were involved.

And he was pretty sure that McCoy had mellowed a little because of her influence in his life. Jim hadn't complained of the doctor hovering anywhere near as much since the Krall incident.

"Well, as good an idea that is, how about helping me replace a few washers and couplings? Some idiot has screwed a few of them up, causing leaks in the lines. And all of them are from here."

"So," she said as she picked up a shifter and headed toward the line he pointed her at, "someone's going to be in trouble come Alpha?"

"You got that right, lassie." He said, sending Keenser off to redirect the fluids while they worked. He saw her look after the wee man as he toddled off, and wondered what her thoughts were. She got on well with the Royaln, something that didn't happen often. While he did know Standard extremely well, his vocal cords and tongue weren't able to replicate the necessary sounds and positions for all but a handful of words. She was one of only a handful of people that understood his minimal facial features, Jim being one of them.

They worked for several minutes before Keenser returned, handing the woman a socket wrench when she asked.

"Thank you." She said, her hand moving from her chin to a point a few inches away forward.

The Royaln tapped his leg and copied the gesture. "What is that, lass?" He asked to the silent question.

"Scotty?"

"That gesture you did?" He mimicked it.

"Oh, it's sign language. It means thank you. I thought you and Keenser knew it?"

"No, what gave you that idea?" Her hands constantly in a flurry of movement every time she spoke to him now made a lot more sense.

Her head tilted in confusion. "How does he talk to you if he can't speak Standard?"

He and Keenser looked at each other a moment. "We've been mates a long time, I know what he's sayin' by how he stands, what his eyes do."

She looked at them a moment before crouching down to the smaller man. "Would you like me to teach you to sign? That way you can actually correct him when he blames you for something you didn't do." She smiled as she said that, and Scotty could honestly say that no one had ever shown as much care for the Royaln aside from himself and Jim as she had right then.

Keenser nodded fast enough that he unbalanced himself slightly, causing him to reach out and steady his friend. "I'll take that as a yes, lassie." He said.

While he got back to the replacements, Sam started with the sign, only to run into a speed-bump.

"Well, this is a might awkward. With humans having four fingers and a thumb, all five are used in sign, but you only have three digits." At his friend's small whine of despair, she hurried on. "Don't worry, that just means I get to get creative with this. Soo," She clapped her hands together, then rubbed them. "Let's get to it." She then looked at her hands and formed the traditional Vulcan greeting gesture with both. "Now, I have three digits." She smiled and Scotty could hear the hum of his friend's purr that only came out when he was extremely happy.

She spoke to them both, explaining as she modified the finger alphabet so that he could do the letters. She had him finger spell everything she asked for and Scotty was pleased when he started to ask her questions with the finger spelling. She taught him a few of the more common ones, water, food, and the like and three hours passed quickly.

They were down to the last few that Scotty could find that needed to be fixed when Sam was reaching to undo a stubborn one when it gave way suddenly, causing her to stumble into a mass of lines. Her foot stepped on one, and the cross-threaded and over-tightened coupling stripped and pulled apart. While nothing was going through it, the line had been clipped into place on one side of the coupling, the other side had been stretched for some reason and snapped back; slicing Sam's arm.

"Arrrr! F**K!" She screamed as she turned away from them, holding her arm against her as she slid to the ground.

"Sam!" Scotty cried out as he raced over from the other side of the room. He tried to turn her to get a look at her arm, but she resisted him; she was stronger than she looked. "Sam, let me see, lass."

"Nah, it's good, Scotty." She hissed as she tried to stand.

He managed to turn her then, and froze at the sight of the green blood on her arm.

"Just excess coolant, Scotty, nothing …"

He got over the shock quickly as he slapped a relatively clean rag over the wound. "I know what coolant looks like, Lassie, and it danne look like them eyes of yours." He tugger her to him, and helped to support her weight as he left for the medbay; only to be pulled up a moment later.

"You have to get McCoy to meet us there." She said, urgency and pleading in her voice.

"I think the night shift will be able to patch you up just fine, Sam."

"Scotty," She said, still not budging, "Aside from you and Keenser, only he knows about me." She looked at him and Scotty realised that she was being serious.

"Not even Jim or Spock!?"

"No, I'll explain later. Right now, I'm not feeling so good." And she proceeded to slide closer to the ground.

Getting the idea, Scotty paged the older man's room.

"This had better be real damn important." Came the growl of the Georgian doctor.

"It's Scotty, Winchester's been hurt."

"How badly?" The voice sounded like its maker had sat up.

"She's bleeding."

Silence reigned for several seconds, during which, Scotty could hear the snap of blankets as they were flung off and a curse as the man looked for clothes. "Get her to the medbay on level 7." The connection was cut and Scotty then took a firmer grasp around the waist of the woman as he shuffled her toward a turbo lift. Keenser had stayed behind to clean up the blood so others wouldn't see.

He entered the room, just as McCoy had come in form the other direction. He pointed to a biobed as he snapped on a pair of gloves.

"What happened?" He asked as he peeled off the rag.

"Was helping Scotty fix something, when I stumbled and a coolant hose snapped." She gasped as McCoy cleaned the wound to get a good look at it.

Scotty took up the tale. "Thing had been stretched, snapped back, and well…" he gestured to the damage, green blood still dripping from the open wound. He flinched as the doctor injected an analgesic to numb the area. He watched as McCoy carefully applied a dermal generator to the area. He could see the worry in his eyes for her, and he knew then, that McCoy saw her as more than a friend. He wondered when he would tell her how he felt, or if he would admit it at all.

"Let's just say, that come Alpha, you might have another visitor." Sam said as she leant back against the bed, allowing the taciturn doctor to cover her in a blanket.

"Humm." The two men watched as she drifted off to sleep, McCoy rubbing the back of her hand. A few moments after she eyes had closed, then had turned to the engineer "You going to tell anyone, Scotty?"

"I figure she has her reasons for not lettin' anyone know, as do you."

 _End Flashback_

"She told me that she had been raised as human, and that anything she knew of Vulcan and its people was from what she had been able to read and what her father had been able to tell her." Scotty said to Spock as they started to gather things together to head out and to their stations for the start of their shifts. "I noticed her not wearing her gloves this morning and she said that she had forgotten them." Spock saw that the engineer didn't quite believe that.

"I have been teaching her how to erect mental walls when touching inanimate items." He looked at the woman as she leant against the doctor, wondering how they were going to write this up. He remembered reading the report of the incident. "Although, I think we will have to see just what fighting skills you have, as some of the ones you employed against me, I have not come across before."

"You got it."

"Not anytime soon, you're not. She's got at least one broken rib, Spock." The doctor growled, and he understood the protective nature of the man, he felt the same with Nyota. "She's going to the medbay right now. She's not going to be on the bridge for a few hours."

"'She's' right here you know. I'm ok Leon, I promise. And I'm sorry." She trailed her fingers down his face, and Spock saw some of the worry at her injury and anger at him leave him.

He knew, that while she had made massive leaps with no longer picking up anything from objects unless she wanted to, she was still struggling with people, just as he did. She was conveying her feelings to him through her fingertips. While it was not anywhere near a full meld, they were at a level of communication that surprised him.

"Ok, but I'm still taking you the medical." He said, his voice husky as he looked into her eyes, placing a hand on her cheek a moment before drawing it away as she nodded.

"It'll be interesting to see how you spin this one, Leonard." Scott said as they stood.

"Keenser was trying to undo something and the socket wrench flew out of his hand." McCoy replied back quickly. Spock got the sense he was joking, which was confirmed by the small Roylan making a growl before launching a flurry of hand gestures at the three. Whatever was signed, caused Scott and Winchester to chuckle; until Winchester's ribs protested.

"Right, time to go." McCoy headed off, throwing back over his shoulder, "Tell Jim Sam'll be in later, Commander. I've got something I'll need your help with later, so I'll comm you when I need you."

Spock nodded as he headed back to the mess room to deposit his plate. He pondered over everything he had learnt, wondering just when Kirk wound be finding out about having not just another Vulcan aboard, but a half-Vulcan that had been raised as a human. He was already writing a thesis on the differences between them in his head. Perhaps he would ask her to part-take in it later.

* * *

A/N: There we go, I hope you enjoyed this. I am part way through writing another story including Sam. I have the outlines for four stories in total.


	4. Blood

Enjoy!

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They were a couple of hours into the shift when he was commed by McCoy to come to the medbay on level 7, the same one used to treat Winchester when Scotty found out.

"Everything alright Spock?" Kirk asked, going to rise and accompany him.

Spock held out a hand to forestall him. "Everything is fine, Captain. Doctor McCoy requested my help earlier today with something." He tipped his head then headed out. It wasn't until he stepped out of the turbo lift that he realised why Kirk was looking at him oddly. He and McCoy avoided each other unless it involved the Captain. To voluntarily work together without being pushed into it, never happened, though since Krall, they had spoken often.

He walked into the Medbay to see the doctor setting up something on a small table with a glass slide on it. Winchester was sitting on a nearby biobed, legs swinging like a child, or Kirk when he was wanting to leave.

"Spock, got a question for you. Your body rejects full Vulcan blood in transfusions, correct?" McCoy asked as he looked up from the slide. He headed back over to the Lt, a syringe in hand.

"Yes, Doctor. However, you know this as it is in my medical history." He answered, wondering where he was going with this.

"Humour me, Commander." He drew blood from the woman; Spock noticed that she didn't even flinch. "What about blood from Sam here? Another half Vulcan, half-human?"

Spock hadn't even thought of that. Granted, the incident with Krall was the closest he had ever been to dying from blood loss, but McCoy had been able to save him then. What would happen if a situation should arise and the blood he has stored in the medbay fridges wasn't enough.

"I have not thought about that, Doctor. How are you planning on testing it without connecting a line to us?" He watched as the older man came over and held out his arm for him to tie a band around his bicep. As he was the only half-human, half Vulcan in history, until he knew of Winchester, he knew that there was no way of testing the theory in simulations.

"Sam reminded me of an old way of finding out compatible blood types." He went back over to the table, and put some of his blood on the slide next to Winchester's. He then mixed the two together. "Her father was B-, your mother was O. Vulcan blood, because it is copper based is hard to classify, and as such, I've no way of testing it other than this. Human Type O is compatible with B-, so in theory, your blood should be fine." They watched as he set the glass stick aside. "If it clumps together, well…"

The blood didn't do anything other than dry. The three shared looks of relief.

"Well, if something happens, looks like we're going to end up as blood brothers." The Lt said.

"I fail to see how that is possible as you are female, Lt." He was about to continue with the meaning of the term, but was interrupted.

"Spock, it's a saying. If I end up hurt enough to go through your supplies and mine and need a live transfusion from you, that's where the phrase comes from." Spock heard nothing but her simple explanation. The exasperation he often heard from others explaining the meaning of such things was absent.

"Well, that's good. Now I don't have to worry about him bleeding out so much."

"Bit more complicated than that, Leon." Winchester said as she stood, only a flash of pain from her broken rib that morning.

"Clarify." He said, spotting McCoy's own look of confusion.

"Blood carries memories, Leon. Spock, you ever had someone's blood on your hands?"

"Several times, Lt."

"You ever picked up thoughts, emotions, memories from that person?"

"Yes, however they fade quickly."

"Right, as the blood dries." She nodded, "What about if it was inside you? My blood in you, vice versa, yours in me."

"You are theorising that the memories and emotions occurring at the time of the transfusion would become permanent?"

"Or around for a very long time. Whoever gives the blood, would need to be in a state of complete calm or a trance, but not unconscious, so as to not pass on such things. I've got things in my past that I'm not only unhappy about, but that you might see as a threat to the safety to this ship." Spock raised both eyebrows at that, but McCoy simply placed his hand over hers. She continued as though neither thing had happened. "And the same goes for you. You might have things that you don't want me to know about."

Silence reigned for several moments until the comm pinged several minutes later. McCoy answered it, seeing as it was the Medbay. "McCoy here."

"Bones, you finished with my First Officer? And how's my Navigator doing? You mentioned something about her helping Scotty when she got injured?" Kirk asked, his tone of mild frustration mixed with curiosity at what the two were up to and worry for Winchester.

"Both are on their way up to you now," He waved them both out as he talked, Winchester trailing her fingers along his cheek as she passed. "She was …" Spock didn't hear the rest of the conversation as he and Winchester entered the turbo lift.

"For a Half-Vulcan raised in a human culture, you know many of the sites for Vulcan kisses, as does Doctor McCoy." He said as she leant against the wall.

"Dad knew them from mum. I think it was the only reason her father tolerated him as much as he did, which isn't saying much. Dad respected the Vulcan culture enough to express his feelings as they did, minimally."

She said nothing more as the doors opened to reveal the bridge. She led the way into the room, taking over from the Ensign filling in, nodding to Kirk. Spock copied the movement before retaking his seat at the science station.

"You ok, Lt?" He heard Kirk ask. "McCoy said you were helping him to perfect his defence moves? I didn't know you were teaching the crew to fight."

"I was teaching him how to block a punch and put down his opponent to be able to get away. He overbalanced on the takedown and his knee landed heavily on my ribs." She sighed and rubbed the area.

"With what happened with Krall, and on that blue planet a couple of months ago, I thought it might be a good idea. While having security on board that have been trained is good, there are more non-trained than trained. And, they can't be everywhere at once, nor are they able to cover everyone. I apologise if I've over stepped my bounds. I was just showing those that wanted to learn, methods that enabled them to put an attacker down quickly and get away."

Spock watched as Kirk thought it through. His next response took him by surprise. "Care to show me what you were teaching him?"

Her eyes widened. "Of course, Captain." After a moment, and he had not moved, "You mean now? Here?" At his nod, she sighed, stood and said, "Throw a punch." as she took a stance

They had moved to the open area at the front of the bridge. As Kirk did so, slowly and without much force behind it; Winchester's face crinkled in annoyance and she simply slapped the fist away.

"Captain, if you want me to show you what I've been teaching, you have to attack me with what they'll be defending against." She sounded exasperated, much like what he had been subjected to when a human saying is explained. "Now again, and this time, MEAN IT!" She pushed him suddenly, causing him to step back a fraction. It was enough to elicit a response. He lashed out with a haymaker.

What happened next was talked about for weeks, and lead to the entire civilian crew being taught the basics of self-defence.

She stopped his blow by stepping into it and throwing both arms up, blocking it, her inner leg behind his. While the outer hand clamped down on his wrist, the other flattened out and hit his neck. She then grabbed a handful of his shirt on his shoulder just as her inner leg straightened, initiating a natural reaction on his part to jerk his leg away, causing him to fall backwards. Still holding his wrist and a handful of shirt at the shoulder, she followed him down. Kneeing him in the solar plexus, she released his arm and delivered what would have been a devastating blow to the face if she hadn't pulled it at the last second.

She held her fist millimetres from his nose for a moment before standing and holding out a hand to help him up.

"I think you can tell where Scotty overbalanced and busted my rib."

Spock was most impressed. He had seen Kirk fight many times, but he had never seen the man taken down so fast. From the moment he had swung his fist to when she stood, it had taken less than ten seconds. Kirk lay there for a moment, looking at the space her fist had occupied for a moment before looking up at her. He held out a hand and she pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, got it." He readjusted his shirt, and hair, before looking around at the other shocked faces in the room. Spock also looked and saw shock on almost every face.

Almost, Lt Sulu wasn't in the least bit surprised. And he said as much. "Lt Sulu, by the lack of surprise on your face, you are aware of the move."

"Oh yeah. She pulled that move on me first day we sparred together. Old school moves she has. It's something that they don't teach you at the academy. Don't get me wrong, they give you the basics, but they don't drill them into you and they don't teach you what works when."

"So…" Kirk, hedged.

"So, Wrench and I have been teaching those that want to learn."

"Wrench?" Spock asked.

"Did you not see her on Theta VII? She fought three of those things with a pair of them, just about took their heads off." One of the other officers in the room spoke up, referring to the incident on the aforementioned blue planet.

Spock looked around and saw many of the others looking at her in awe. He realised that the excuse she and McCoy had given was based in truth. She _had_ been teaching Scott that move, just not today. While he had been brought up taught that lying wasn't necessary or sensible, she hadn't been. "How many, students do you have?" he asked.

"Sixty, maybe, I'm not sure."

"We're doing groups of 20 every second day. Between us, it'll take the entire five-year journey to train everyone." Sulu continued.

Kirk and Spock shared a glance, and like he so often did, he knew that Kirk would change that. The Captain and he would soon be joining the ranks of teachers, as would anyone else that had the skills. Sulu and Winchester would be in charge, and the others would support. Things were going to be a bit less routine from now on.

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A/N: So, I know this one is a bit, ok, a lot shorter, but the reason is that I'm switching from Spock to another's view. I'll post it soon, just got to give it one last read through to make sure I've cleared it of mistakes.

I'm not in the medical industry, but a few google searches informed me about an old way of testing blood compatibility.

The idea for this story came about after watching Beyond, and I thought, what would happen if Spock was hurt bad enough to need a transfusion. It also came from a line in a Star Trek fanfic I read that said something to the effect that his body won't accept full Vulcan blood, (sorry, but I really can't remember who, that idea is totally yours).


	5. Blood Round 2

A/N: As mentioned last chapter, I'm switching views. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Kirk watched as his First Officer, Spock, Chief Medical Officer, McCoy, Chief Engineering Officer LtC Scott, his assistant Keenser and Navigator, Lt Winchester walked back up the hill. They had just finished a visit to a new world, Littaner, that had achieved warp capabilities. They had come across the planet's vessel a week before after it had become stricken when it's warp core broke down. Scotty had been beamed aboard after establishing communication and he had found that it had been sabotaged. After fixing the problem, they had followed the ship back.

Turned out there was a faction that didn't want the planet to explore space, saying that it wasn't the way of their gods. The majority of the planet had long since stopped worshiping them, however a small, but vocal, group were showing their displeasure of space exploration by sabotaging anything they could. Hundreds had already died because of them.

While Kirk and his crew weren't able to partake in the investigation, they did help them with designs for their ships, communication with Starfleet and places to visit that would welcome them. Bones had been excited by a new medical piece of equipment that allowed memories to be shown to others. Spock, while there was outward sign of enthusiasm; had wanted to know more about the planets way of achieving the energy output it had with heavy water, which was higher than what Earth was able to currently produce.

He watched as the five of them walked together, discussing something. Something had been happening the last few weeks with them. He knew that Spock and Winchester met up every couple of days at some unmentionable hour of the morning. That the five would have breakfast in Scotty's office every third day. That Winchester had taught a modified version of Earth sign to the small Royaln and they enjoyed talking in it to annoy the others. He had come across a sealed section that had appeared in Spock's file, that only Bones could access and noticed that Winchester had stopped using her gloves and no longer wore long sleeves.

He was wondering what was going on, he didn't like things being kept from him. He had yet to talk to any of them, but he was thinking it was time. It had been bad enough before Spock joined them, as he had thought it had been about who she was seeing. But upon his inclusion into the group, he was starting to think there was something else going on; he knew there was no way Spock would cheat on Uhuru. While it hadn't impacted the operations of the ship, doing the opposite in fact, he couldn't take the chance. He would call them together once they had left the planet and demand answers.

He was talking to the Sovereign of Littaner, Bimbge, about when a diplomatic ship would arrive. The three legged people were open about wanting to retain their own leadership. The diplomatic team would be better equipped to help the planet with becoming if not a federation planet, at least an ally. They were heading to a clear space of ground. The trees seemed to have properties that made beaming under them impossible; something else that had fascinated the Science Officer. It was just as they reached it that a shot rang out. While Littaner had achieved warp, they were still using projectile weapons. Kirk had heard them before and ducked while pulling out his phaser. He noticed the speed with which Winchester had also acted, pulling Bones down lower. Spock too had dropped, pulling Scotty and Keenser down with him; and it wasn't until he heard Scotty's cry, did he think it was for another reason.

"Spock!" Kirk hurried over, pulling Bimbge down and along with him. "Spock?"

"He's been hit Jim. We need to get him back to the Enterprise. Now." The older man said as he ran a tricorder over him, more shots kicking dust up around them as they landed in the dirt. Trust Spock to get hit with the only well aimed bullet. "He's bleeding pretty bad." Bones was now holding his hands over the wound on the Vulcan's stomach.

Kirk nodded, but he was reluctant to leave the elderly gentleman that had accompanied them alone in a sign of trust. Winchester was firing at the area, and he heard a body drop for every shot she fired. He noticed that she had her phaser set to stun as Scotty contacted the ship. Wondering again at what she did before she joined Starfleet, considering that she was a navigator, he looked for somewhere to hide Bimbge. Just then, a security force arrived, firing at the area and surrounding the small group of officers.

"Sire?!" one called out, Kirk recognising him as the Sovereign's son and 2IC. "Are you hurt?" While Standard wasn't their language, they were scary fast in picking it up, and they seemed to like it. Even the sign that Keenser did with Scotty and Winchester had been picked up and was quickly being modified by the children to talk behind their elders back in code.

"No, they saved me, however one of their number have been injured. We must get him to the healers."

"Apologies, Sovereign, but Spock is not of our kind. He has lost a lot of blood and the ship is the only place that we have a stock pile of to replace it." Bones said suddenly in a show of diplomacy. There was nothing wrong with the healers planet-side, he had been impressed with what they had. But he wanted them to know that they couldn't help, and it had nothing to do with their people or equipment.

Bimbge nodded. "Very well, good luck." Golden beams surrounded Spock, the doctor, Scotty and Keenser, leaving Winchester to help the security team to round up the attackers. Kirk recognised the outfits as those belonging to the faction. Seemed they wanted to stir up more trouble. It took another hour to round up the group that had attacked them, Jim was getting antsy to return to the ship to find out how Spock was faring. He hadn't wanted to leave until things had settled.

"If my team hadn't come, what would you have done, Captain?" Bimbge asked suddenly as he watched his team along with his Navigator.

Kirk suddenly realised what they were trying to do, and it explained why all the shots but the one that took down Spock had been aimed at the ground. "Taken you to my ship to keep you safe." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "These guys would have spun something to the effect that we had kidnapped you." He looked over the faction members that hade been brought into the clearing and lain out; he recognised the ones that the Lt had shot, they were the only ones not bleeding orange.

"Thank you for helping to capture so many." Bimbge said to the woman as she dropped another shooter next to the others.

The women here weren't allowed to join the security forces, their bone structure was too fragile. They were however allowed to partake in espionage. Their telepathy skills were unique to the females and allowed them to search the minds of others. When they first learnt that humans did not possess the ability, and therefore the capabilities to protect their minds and thoughts, they had refrained from touching minds to share knowledge. After conferring with Spock about the abilities of a touch-telepath, they found that they were far stronger than him.

Winchester had been giving the females pointers on how to fight to escape if they needed, just as she had been doing on the ship for the past six months. She had had great fun adapting the techniques for the three legged race.

She had also disappeared for a day. Not even the ships bio-sensors had been able to find her. Bimbge had told him that she had wanted to meet with anyone who could tell her about spiritual rituals. As such a thing was sacred, and forbidden to outsiders, she had shared something with them and had hidden herself from the ship so as to keep them secret. Even Bimbge didn't know what had transpired and she hadn't included any of it within her own reports.

"I hope they will be helpful, Sovereign. My understanding is that there is only a small number of them left as it is. Hopefully, you can route them out now. Although, it would be best to tell your people that they were captured simply because we were defending ourselves. Best not to give the rebels more ammunition against you." She bowed to him before informing the Enterprise to prepare to bring herself and Kirk aboard.

"Yes, I can see how that would be best, and it is also the truth." The pale orange elder said.

"I'll have my people write reports on what happened and send them to you. It should help with any trials you may want to put these guys on." Kirk said as he took his own place in the clearing. He bowed to the elder and the others.

"Thank you for everything, Captain. I hope Mr Spock will recover quickly. Please inform us of his recovery."

"I will, Sovereign. And thank you for everything."

"Winchester to Enterprise, two to beam up; energize."

Upon reappearing in the transporter room, he thanked the Ensign, instructed Winchester to head to the bridge, and headed to the medbay, wanting an update on Spock. He arrived to a scene of controlled chaos. One of the nurses, Chapel, he remembered, said it was still touch and go before hurrying back into the operating room. Knowing that it would be some time before he knew anything more, he had his post planet medical, showered and headed to the bridge.

He took his seat and looked out of the viewing window to the green planet below. He turned to communications to ask Uhuru how she was, only to see an Ensign in her seat. Knowing that she would be in medical, he turned forward. Seeing Winchester in her seat, he asked if she was starting her report.

"I have only today to write up, Captain. I'm already writing a second report on the shootout for the Sovereign to be sent as soon as it's finished for their records." She said without looking up.

Kirk was impressed. How she had been able to find time to write things up and still do everything she had been, he didn't know. "Thank you, Lt." He hit the comm. button "Scotty." He paused as he was connected to the CEO.

"Aye, Captain."

"Please have a report written up of today's events as soon as possible for Littaner's records, Scotty. Bimbge may want to start a trial as soon as they wake up. How are you two holding up?"

"Will do, Captain. We're ok, Jim; be better once we know how Spock's doing." The Scotsman said before disconnecting.

It was another later and Kirk was about to dismiss the relief crew when a hurried call came from the medbay.

"Sam, get down here now!" Bones' voice was frantic, and Winchester was out the door before Kirk could ask what was going on. Knowing that there was only one emergency happening at that moment, he followed her out with a hurried "Sulu, you have the bridge."

He arrived in the viewing area to see Winchester's fingers on the Psi points of Spock's face. A moment later she moved to a biobed next to Spock. Uhuru looked to him and he shrugged, not knowing what was happening. Several blood bags were discarded on the table nearby, tinges of green in them showing that it was Spock's and the one on the hook above him looked to be nearly empty. He turned on the audio to find out what was happening.

"That's the last bag, Sam." The gruff voice of the doctor floated out of the speakers.

"You should have called me as soon as you started the one before. You've got a bleeder in the lower abdomen."

He nodded in thanks. "Didn't think I needed it, or you. Damn bullet fragmented. One of the shards nicked an artery as I removed another a few minutes ago, thought I had everything under control." He spent a couple of minutes controlling the bleeding in the area pointed out by Winchester, before calling out to a nurse. "Chapel, get over here and hold this in place." He said, stepping back to allow Chapel to take over, holding a pair of clamps. Kirk watched as he set up a clear line, while Winchester set the biobed she was on to monitor her heart and brain waves.

Bones stood between the two beds, a line with a needle connected at each end in hand. He waited next to Winchester as she calmed her breathing. He didn't move as Spock started crashing, simply calling out to another nurse to get a crash cart and get his heart going again. This caused Kirk to leave the observation room and head into the OR, Uhuru right behind him. He burst into the room, just as Winchester nodded and the doctor inserted the needle into her arm. Anything he had been about to say froze in his throat as he saw the green blood travel along the line. It quickly traversed the distance as Bones waited for the air to leave it before inserting it into the IV in Spock's arm. He then raised the bed slightly, allowing her to be above him.

"What?!" Both he and Uhuru said before Bones turned to them, and the rest of the staff, who had also frozen.

"Jim, Uhuru, get out. Chapel, get ready to let me take over, Mayson, get that cart out of here and get me 5CCs of …." He issued orders while pushing Kirk and Uhuru out of the room, Jim catching sight of Winchester's pointed ears. He stood at the closed doors, not moving as he heard the bustle of everything behind them.

"Did you know?" he heard her ask.

"I didn't think he could take the blood of a full Vulcan." He managed to answer after a moment.

"I don't think she is. I think she's half, like him. He's been writing up a paper the last few weeks on how different a Vulcan could be if raised by Humans. I think she's been helping him." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm going back to the viewing area."

"Why didn't he tell me?" and he suddenly got the reason they had all been talking together, they knew. "Why didn't any of them?"

He stood there for another minute before following his communication officer. He watched from above as Bones removed the shattered bullet pieces and sewed his friend shut, all the while hooked up to a living blood bank. Winchester laid there, not moving and Jim noticed that her brain waves were very inactive.

* * *

A/N: There's a MASH episode where Klinger is hooked up to another patient as his blood donor when the unit is forced to evacuate to a cave system. That, combined with my other thoughts, was my inspiration for this story.

I find Uhuru hard to write for, so there won't be many Spock/Nyota interactions.


	6. Bones was first

Here we go, another chapter. Enjoy.

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It was another hour before Bones was finished and closed Spock's wounds. He left the line connected between Winchester and his First Officer, Uhuru taking up a chair next to him. Jim watched as Bones cleaned his hands and headed out of the room, leaving instructions with Chapel to disconnect the line in half an hour or when Spock woke, whichever happened first, then get him. He headed down to meet him.

"Why wasn't I told about Winchester being Vulcan?"

"Because she isn't."

 _Ok, Not the answer I was expecting._ He thought. "I saw her blood, her ears." He reached out and grabbed Bones' arm as he walked past. "Bones, why didn't any of you tell me? What's going on?"

His oldest friend stopped, sighed, then looked at him. "Sam was raised as a human by her father after her mother died in childbirth. Her Vulcan Grandparents didn't want to know her, having not approved of the marriage. Her father told them Sam had also died, and brought her back here. Spock didn't know because it was never discussed, and her birth was never recorded because as far as they knew, she had died."

"And since you found out? I'm guessing during the crew medicals since we left Yorktown." Jim followed him down the hall and into his office. Bones had been operating on Spock for three hours and it was showing. He organised a cup of coffee and set it on the desk, before speaking, telling the story of how he had found out.

 _Flashback_

Doctor Leonard 'Bones' McCoy wandered the hallways of the USS Enterprise. They were three weeks out of Yorktown after having the ship rebuilt from the ground up. As per usual, he had started the crew physicals the day after leaving port. There were the usual medical checks before being assigned to the ship, but the shipboard Doctor always liked to do another once they were spacebound. Leonard always believed that people preformed different in artificial gravity and he liked to make sure that nothing had been hidden by the more Earth-like conditions of Yorktown.

While he left the nurses and other doctors to do the majority of the crew, he preferred to handle the senior bridge crews, namely, the Alpha crew. With a child-like Captain when it came to medical instructions, a Vulcan First Officer and a new Navigator; whom he had so far been _just_ missing, and had only met once before by chance at Yorktown, he had his work cut out for him. But at least Jim tended to listen to him over any of the others and Spock ensured that he knew when Jim was injured. But, so far, he knew nothing about the new navigator, other than what he saw during that unexpected encounter.

Samanthea Winchester was only a couple of years younger than him, and had served on several other ships in a similar capacity for the past fifteen years. Aside from the standard Starfleet classes, she had also taken, and graduated at the top of, a class called Rites of the Dead; a subject dedicated to the ceremonial practices of honouring the dead of all known races and species.

So far, her photo was the only time he had seen her since leaving Yorktown. Brown hair that sat on her shoulders in chocolate waves with dark forest coloured eyes gazing out. Every place the ship said she was, by the time he arrived, she would be gone. In the end, he resorted to waiting for her outside her quarters. He hid around a corner, doing some work on a PADD when he spotted her walking toward her room. He waited until she was level with him and reached out, grabbing her arm.

Her reaction was not one he was expecting, and as such, seemed a little extreme to him. He was pressed up against a wall a second later, struggling to breath, his toes barely touching the floor.

"Just wanted to do your medical." He managed to get out, his arm falling from her shoulder as he lost consciousness.

First thing he registered was he was on a bed, when he woke. An improvement, sure, but it wasn't his own. He sat up, wincing as he moved his head to look around the room. His hand went to it as a voice spoke.

"Sorry. I don't like being snuck up on." The voice was female, pleasant yet firm, and still had the Australian accent he remembered. He looked toward the voice and saw it was indeed Winchester. She was sitting at her table, a tea set in front of her. "Camomile, it'll help with your throat." She continued, handing him a cup.

Taking it from her, he took a sip. While more of a coffee drinker himself, he did find it rather soothing. Finishing the cup, he stood, made his way over to the table and took the other seat. Looking at her a moment, he pondered what to ask first. Her over-reaction, or her strength. She was as he remembered her, a little smaller than him, around 5'8"; and certainly didn't look anywhere near that strong.

"Ok," He started, "Several questions. First, over-reaction much? Do I need to worry about seeing an influx of patients if they sneak up on you?"

She took a moment to answer that. "No, you caught me by surprise at the end of a very long day, most of which was spent avoiding you."

"Avoiding?"

"I'm not in the best of moods today, as evidenced by my reaction. I didn't want to get benched because of a bad day. Guess that's going to happen anyway now." She sighed and dropped her head and a mask that Leonard didn't think she knew she had been putting on, making her look younger.

"Want to talk about it?" that earned him a look from her in which she didn't move her head. It was a little unnerving.

"What other questions did you have?" She said, bringing him back on track.

"How strong are you? I'm not light, yet you lifted me clear off the floor with one arm."

"Very, before I joined Starfleet I did a lot of work with my father. He was a former solider and wanted a son. He taught me everything and I often accompanied him when he … cleared places of undesirables."

Leonard caught the hesitation, but didn't call her on it. Not what he was after right then. There was also something else she wasn't telling him, but he didn't know what it was. He looked around for his bag, caught sight of it on the table and pulled out the tricorder. He had just held it up to start his medical of her, when she stood and turned away.

"I've already had a medical check-up before I came aboard, Dr McCoy."

"I like to conduct my own on the Alpha crew once we're spacebound." He stuttered, barely getting the words out as he looked over the reading the tricorder picked up. They couldn't be right. He must have said the words out loud, as Winchester said

"They're right."

"But, they show your heart where our liver is; and your blood is copper based, not iron. That would make you, Vulcan. You don't act like one."

"Half."

"Half?"

"My father was human."

"But how…?" He looked at the tricorder, going over her medical history. It clearly stated that she was human.

A smile lit her face then, "I'm very good with computers."

 _End of Flashback_

"She told me that if others knew, she would be pressured into going to New Vulcan and making amends with the very people that didn't care that she had died as a child." He finished his second cup, setting it back into his cupboard, "And, she sees herself as human, not Vulcan. Until Spock, she hadn't even spoken with another Vulcan."

"Ok, so what has he been teaching her? I saw her hand on his Psi points, Bones." Jim watched as he sighed, running a hand over his face.

"She's a very quick study. She's as smart as he is, maybe more so. Everything he's given her to study, she's mastered it within days. They've only just started on the mind meld stuff. She did it before to try and calm him down. Half the reason I went through the blood as fast as I did was because his heart rate was up so high."

Jim processes everything before voicing something that had bothered him. "Why didn't Spock tell me?"

"Because I told him I would when the time was right."

Bones stood and went to Winchester as she stepped into the room. "Time's never right on this ship." He growled, but Jim could hear a note of worry in his voice and he wondered what she was doing out of bed. "What are you doing out of bed? You shouldn't even be upright, let alone walking around."

"I'm part Vulcan, Leon, and a … Winchester. I'm a fast healer. Spock's fine. He just entered a healing trance." She said as she allowed Bones to lower her into his chair. Jim could see the worry on his face, as well as the love he wasn't showing when elsewhere in the ship.

"To be honest, I was expecting something else to happen, before Spock getting hurt enough to warrant my giving him a live transfusion." She said as she lent back in the chair, accepting the cup of electrolytes from Bones and taking a drink. "Mmmm, thanks, Leon." She closed her eyes a moment, resting.

Jim knew that losing blood was tiring, but she looked as though she had just fought a mental battle as well. "You ok? I know losing blood's one thing, but you look more worn out than that."

"Blood carries memories, Captain."

"Jim, please. We're not on duty." Then he trigged to what she said. "Memories?"

"Yeah," her eyes were closed and she looked like she was falling asleep. "I had to calm my thoughts and close my walls so that any memories I have that I didn't want Spock to see wouldn't be transmitted. When either of us get blood on our hands, we can feel the emotions, see the memories until the blood dries or we wash it off." She was tiring quickly now, pausing for several seconds between sentences. "Bastard." She suddenly said, her head twisting slightly in the doctor's direction. "No hanky panky for you later, Bones."

 _Well that confirmed that._ He thought to himself. He wondered how long they had been together.

"You can thank me later, Sam." Bones said, taking the cup from her now limp fingers. Jim realised that he had drugged her. "You still lost a lot of blood, and I don't care where it went. You're still weak as a new born lamb."

Jim managed to choke back a laugh as a fist connected with his face with enough force to knock him over.

"Still knock you on ass." She mumbled with a groggy smile on her face.

"She's still stronger than you, Bones."

"Yeah, yeah. Damn Vulcans." He said as Jim helped him to his feet. He rubbed his jaw, and Jim was glad that whatever he had put in that was enough to knock her out, otherwise, Bones would have been unconscious.

He helped Bones move the woman to the couch and covered her with a blanket. "You know she's going to be pissed at you right?"

"She shouldn't have been walking around, and I told her as much when I finished with Spock. I half expect to see him in a minute. I swear, Jim, you've rubbed off on half of the crew." He grumbled as he poked his head out the door to check that Spock was indeed still in bed. Nodding that he was still there, he headed back to his desk.

"We discussed it a while ago, the blood memories. Both her and Spock think that there is a chance that because they're half human, their memories could be carried across. In serve cases, some of them could become permanent, if the memory is strong enough."

"That why you waited until she went into an almost trance-like state before putting that line into her?"

Bones nodded before saying "Jim, you'd best get to bed. Neither of these guys are going to be moving until tomorrow. Once they're up and around I'll contact you and we'll talk, all of us."

"And the reports about her being Vulcan? The Admiralty will want to know, and once they do, so will Vulcan."

"Can we deal with that tomorrow? Right now, we all need a solid eight hours sleep."

Jim nodded and stood; taking a moment to look at the pair and thanking the universe for another half-Vulcan.

Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek

It was nearing lunch the next day when Bones contacted him to say that he, Spock, Winchester and Scotty were waiting in Bones' office. Leaving Sulu in charge, he headed down. Entering, he saw both patients sitting at a table. The desk had been moved to the side and a table brought in and lunch set out for all. He noticed several dishes especially for Spock, as they had no meat. Silence reigned as he sat, no one making a start.

After several minutes, he said, "Lunch first, then I want to know why I wasn't informed that I had another half Vulcan on board my ship." Receiving several nods, he reached for a plate and loaded it up. He watched as Winchester loaded up with similar items as Spock.

"Like Spock, I don't eat meat." Was all she said, catching his eye. He ducked his head at getting caught, but allowed the silence to continue as they ate.

Once they finished, Spock spoke first. "Captain, I must apologise. I was going to inform you of Lt Winchester, but I wanted to be sure of what I had seen first."

"And I made him promise not to tell you. I wanted to be the one." Winchester added.

Jim watched the interactions between them all, wondering just what the hell he was going to do. They had a few weeks before the heads of Starfleet knew about the reports that everybody had filed that morning. He had just finished reading over everything that he could; medical records were sealed which meant that no-one would be able to read them. And because of that, he might have a bit more time, at least until the other doctors read the reports and told them.

"Still not answering my question. Why wasn't I told?"

There was a pause before Winchester spoke, "I'm going to give you the same answer I gave Spock when he found out, the same one I have given everyone. They didn't want to know I even existed back then; but since the destruction of Vulcan, none of them that knew my father have reached out just to make sure I really was dead." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, revealing her ears before tying it up. "The other reason is that I'm happy here, with Starfleet. I want to stay. With the current situation, they may want me to return to the planet."

"We'll make damn sure you are nea going anywhere, lass." Scotty said, as Bones laid a hand over hers, saying

"I'm not letting them take you off this ship without a fight, Sam."

"I'm sure an agreement can be reached." This from the half Vulcan male.

Jim heard all this, and he knew he wasn't going to let Winchester go, no matter what anyone thought. "It will be several weeks before the heads of Starfleet will receive our reports about Lattiner, and a few more days before the doctors inform them of your status, Sam. In the meantime, I'm going to lay in a course for New Vulcan. Once we arrive, I'm going to request an audience with the High Council and inform them personally of the situation. I want you to be there Sam, as well as you Spock. We show them a united front, one that wants you to stay and has the full support of the ship. If things as going as well as I'm thinking between you and Leon, they won't have to worry about the next generation. And I doubt that they will make you stay, for at least two reasons. One, you and Leon have formed a strong bond, if what I've seen over the last few weeks are anything to go by, one they won't try and break. And two, I doubt they'll want you to stay. Not with the fact you were raised by your human father and are nothing like a Vulcan personality wise, it would disrupt their order. You act far too human, show too much emotion. And three, I just thought of this one, you won't be happy there."

Jim watched with fascination at the expressions on the faces of those around him. By now, the whole ship knew of Sam, and every crew member had sought him out at some point over the last several days to ask if she was staying on board, and that they hoped so.

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A/N: The next chapter involves them arriving at New Vulcan. I have no idea how far the ship is from Earth at this point, and as such, I'm making it up a little. If there is anyone that knows, please PM me and I'll change it. If it doesn't work with how I've written it already, I'll edit the story.


	7. Meeting the Family

A/N: Second last chapter. Enjoy. This is also the chapter I wanted to know if it was viable for them to return to our solar system. If not, I can have it set at Yorktown. Please let me know.

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It was several weeks later at the fastest warp they could sustain that saw Jim standing on the bridge with Spock on one side and Winchester and Bones on the other. New Vulcan was coming into view in the screen, and he had just sent a request to meet with the High Council. He hadn't told them why, only that he had found something they needed to see.

He noticed his navigator fidgeting out of the corner of his eye, "You look nervous. You thinking this is a bad idea?" He asked her.

"I'm thinking I've got a few scenarios running through my head."

"What do you believe will happen, Lt?" Spock asked.

"Once they find out who I am, that's when things will get interesting. They'll not care, and want nothing to do with me. They'll welcome me, but not approve of my friendship with Leon." She sighed and ran a hand over her hair. "Truth is, I've got a lot of ways this will go down planned out."

Bones spoke then, "And not very many of them good. I thought I was the pessimist." He wrapped an arm around her in a quick hug before dropping it. Jim watched as she leant against him. He noticed that her hair was an intricate weave that covered her ears again, but with the aid of the clip in her hair, it could be lifted and held up on top of her head.

"'Hope for the best, plan for the worst.' is how I was raised. You all reacted to my being half-Vulcan in a way that I thought only had less than a 5% chance of happening. Me tossed into the brig for lying to you all and deceiving Starfleet was a bigger concern." She said, before turning abruptly and heading for the turbolift. "You coming or what? Lets get this over with."

The golden beams of the transport faded, leaving them on the surface of New Vulcan. Jim could swear he could taste the red soil that surrounded them. The conditions reminded him of his home state, only more extreme. The winds felt like they were taking bites from his skin.

Before them stood, Sarek, Spock's father, Dlece, Winchester's grandfather and several others that Jim recognised as the men that had been beamed aboard before Vulcan had been destroyed. Spock and Winchester had showed them photos of Dlece before landing, so they would know who to look for.

"Captain Kirk," Sarek said, "Welcome to New Vulcan."

"Sarek, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. This is my Chief Medical Officer, Dr McCoy, and my navigation officer, Lt Winchester." He watched the face of Dlece, and it was only because of that, he caught the tiniest hints of shock in his eyes.

"When we received your request, and you did not tell us the reason for it, we contacted StarFleet. They denied knowing of your decision in coming here, the reason, nor had they approved of it." Dlece said taking a step forward.

"May we move this discussion inside?" Spock asked. "As you are aware, the conditions are trying even for me, let alone a human."

Sarek nodded and led the way, with Kirk bringing up the rear. Once inside the council chambers, they were seated and served with drinks. While Bones poured from a pitcher of water given to them; Spock was served Vulcan tea, which he quickly shared with Jim and Winchester.

Seeing the raised eyebrows of his father, he simply said, "Jim asked to sample it one day. He finds the blend …tasty."

"And the female?" Dlece asked. He hadn't taken his eyes off her since he had said her name. He could hear the distain in his voice.

"The 'female' is sitting right here, I _can_ hear you, and my name, is Samanthea Winchester, named after my Uncle, Samuel, and my mother, T'Hea." With that, she took a drink, then tied her hair up, revealing her pointed ears.

Jim quietly sipped his tea, watching the many things happening at Winchester's words. Dlece's face visibly showed his shock, the others within the chamber murmured to one another, while Sarek simply raised his eyebrows. Spock had contacted his father to make sure that Dlece would be here, so Jim guessed that he had at least surmised the reason.

"You survived?" Asked Dlece

"Duh. I have Vulcan and Winchester blood running through me, of course I was going to survive." She set the cup down, which Spock filled again.

"Your name has no bearing on your ability to survive."

If Jim hadn't been sitting so close, he would have missed the whispered, "Depends on the ancestry." from her.

"How?" This from one of the others. "Your father told us you hadn't survived the birth."

"And humans lie. He knew that none of you approved of them being together, and once he lost Mum,…" Winchester closed her eyes and held back a sob. He could hear her voice breaking. "He knew you would never let him stay, so saying that I had died, guaranteed that he could leave." Her eyes hardened as she looked at her grandfather. "Turned out to be a good idea, as you didn't even want to see me before he left. Dad said I look just like her, and the photos I have of them together proved him right."

"So why are you here now?" Dlece asked, his voice slipping, showing his distaste for her, now that he knew who she was. Jim guessed it was because she did look just like her mother, right down to her eyes. And chances were, she sounded and acted just like her father.

A moment of silence, before Winchester stood abruptly, "Ask them." She said, pointing to both himself and Spock. "I need some air." With that she left, Bones following her a moment later.

Jim watched the pair leave, the doctors hand slipping into hers, only to be pulled away and tucked under her arms. The doors closed and Jim turned his attention back to the council members.

"We brought her here because she is Vulcan, no matter what her parentage." Spock said. "And you needed to know of another Vulcan. With as few of us as there are, I would have thought it logical that our race needs every one. She was denied the opportunity to learn of a part of herself, the Vulcan half. I myself was able to learn of both halves, with my human mother teaching me of human ways. She had no one to teach her of the things all Vulcans know. Her father had limited knowledge, and only knew what T'Hea had been able to teach him."

"It has only been in the past few months with my teaching her that she has been able to block feelings from inanimate objects. She had taught herself a way of feeling emotions and thoughts through the fingertips of others, as she didn't have anyone to teach her how to control a full meld through the Psi points."

"Everything I have given her to learn, she has mastered within a matter of days. Her fighting skills rival my own, simply because of how she was raised. She is smart, cunning and _human_."

Jim thought he had better take a hand in the conversation, as Spock was allowing a little too much emotion to show. "Yet she came here, hoping that there was a chance you would accept her as family and teach her that which she missed out on as a Vulcan. However, she also figured that this would be your reaction, and my understanding is that she had planned things to go more like this than anything else."

Silence reigned for a moment before Dlece leaned forward. "Do you know what her father did for a living?"

Jim was about to answer in the negative when a voice sounded from beside them, making him flinch. There was something in it that he couldn't place.

"No, they don't. You tell them," she nodded at him, Spock and Bones as he retook his seat, "I'll tell them," Winchester nodded at the Vulcan council, "what you tried to do." she said as she moved to stand behind him and Spock. Wondering what the hell she meant, he looked at her, only he didn't recognise the face he saw. It was dark, like it had seen the depths of hell and barely made it back to tell the tale.

"My father told me everything and showed me his memories."

He looked back to Dlece and saw that his normally pale and emotionless features had gotten even paler and a hint of fear was showing. Wondering just what the hell was going on, he realised that Dlece, at least wouldn't be wanting her to stay on New Vulcan.

"Samanthea, enough with the threats." Sarek said, standing and indicating they follow him.

Just as they were about to leave the room, "Your father took her from me." While said without emotions, Jim could hear the heartbreak, anger and grief within the words.

"He gave you another ten years with her. That's more than I ever got." She glared at Dlece a moment before following. Many of the other councillors were still muttering to themselves as they left the room.

"Not a threat, Sarek, a promise." She said as they caught up.

"When Spock asked that I make sure Dlece would be here today, I knew you had survived. Your father and I…" he stopped.

"Were as friendly as one could be with a Vulcan. He said you were the one to help him get home. He thought that you might have figured it out. When Vulcan, … , I kept an ear out for a comm from you to him." She said. "Not many people know that he's dead."

"I had considered it, however it would mean revealing to the council that I knew not only of your existence, but that I had also lied to them."

"Why did you never tell me, Father?" Spock asked them. Jim wondered the same thing, there could have only been a handful of years between the two.

 _(A/N: The reason Serak gives Spock, I've never been happy with. I've tried rewriting it several times, but it still doesn't sound any good. If after reading this, someone has a better idea, please PM me.)_

"For the same reasons, Spock. It would have been difficult for you to keep such a thing secret as a child. And you would have no doubt wanted to meet with her. And once you reached adulthood, it was clear you were struggling as it was with your decisions of where you wanted to go. Knowing of her would have made it harder for you to decide." He turned to his son, and Jim felt he was intruding. "Spock, things as they stand now, the council will approve of you continuing to teach her of our history." He looked toward Winchester, and saw that Bones had joined her, their fingertips touching. "And I have no doubt that they will not do anything to separate the two of you." He continued, nodding in their direction.

"Thank you, Sarek.", returning the nod.

"May I speak with you a moment, alone, Lt Winchester?" He asked, holding out a hand away from the group. He then said something in another language, to which she responded.

Jim saw Spock's eyebrows rise in surprise, and once she and the Vulcan elder had moved off a distance, he asked, "Spock, what did they say?"

"I am unsure, Captain. It is a very archaic language, and not one I studied in depth. My understanding is that T'Hea was greatly versed in the old languages. It would have made sense for her to teach the Lt's father."

"Who would have then taught Winchester." Jim said, running a hand over his head. "Bones, any thoughts on what they're talking about?"

"No. She's always kept something from me, but it hasn't impacted our relationship."

They all turned to watch, just in time to see Winchester gesture across the planet then shake her hands; like she did when she had touched something that had strong enough memories that they got past her walls. She nodded at something that the older man said, shook it then said something. Whatever was being discussed, seemed to be something that had been on the old man's mind for some time. It was another ten minutes before she re-joined them, Sarek moving back into the chambers.

"Can we go now? I want to go home." She sighed and lent her head against Bones' chin, her fingers re-joining his.

"What did Dlece try to do?" Bones asked as he held her.

"Another time. Home?"

"Sure." He pulled his comm out and asked for a beam up. "Energize."

They re-entered the bridge a short while later, to Sulu telling them that Starfleet Command was waiting for them. He said that he would take it in the conference room.

"Admiral Archer, what can I do for you?" Jim asked, a though nothing was wrong or unusual.

"Captain, what are you doing at New Vulcan? You are meant to be on the other side of Yorktown." The older man asked, anger and confusion. "I know I asked for Porthos to be returned to me in any way other than via warp, but this is a little extreme."

Jim looked toward Winchester, silently asking, to which she nodded. "I am aware, Admiral, however we discovered something that the Vulcan High Council needed to know, and it was something that we thought best done in person."

"Whatever is had better be pretty damn important."

"It is Sir." He nodded and Winchester came to stand next to him, ears uncovered. "Admiral, I'd like to reintroduce Lt Winchester, whose father was from Earth, and whose mother was the daughter of the Vulcan elder, Dlece." Silence descended upon the room. Jim could see the implications of such a statement, and was waiting for his superior to respond to such a statement.

"Are you telling me you have another half-Vulcan aboard your ship, and didn't tell anyone? How?" He was looking at the woman, especially her ears as though to make sure that Jim wasn't pranking him.

"Actually, Sir, until the incident on Littaner a few months ago, I had no idea. Commander Spock was badly wounded and the blood kept for him was used during the surgery. Lt Winchester was called by my CMO, Dr McCoy to the medbay and that is when I found out." Jim looked at his oldest friend, "Everything will be in the report that we will send as soon as we finish here, Sir. We will arrive at Earth in four days to reunite you with Porthos and to discuss things further."

Archer nodded and Jim was glad that they had another few days respite to digest everything. Shutting the comm down, he returned to the bridge before opening a ship-wide channel. "This is the Captain. We will be leaving the orbit of New Vulcan in 12 hours. We will be arriving at Earth three days after that. If you have anyone on Earth you would like to see, contact them now. We may be there for a few days. Kirk out."

He nodded to the bridge crew that they may leave if they wished to contact someone, and that he would stay. When he saw many hesitating, he went to say something, only to be beaten by Winchester.

"Go. The only family I have is aboard this ship, so I'll stay too."

"My family is back on Yorktown, go." Sulu joined in.

Nyota and several others left the bridge to make calls.

Several hours later, he was on the bridge as they left New Vulcan. The Alpha shift were resting, but he had responded to a message from Sarek. The man had wanted to know how Winchester was handling being essentially rejected from her last remaining family. He also confirmed that the remaining council were ok with Spock teaching her anything she wanted to know.

It was as Jim suspected with the Starfleet heads. They wanted to know just how the hell she had managed to keep the fact she was Vulcan from the medical personnel. Turned out it was rather simple; any doctor that asked if she had done a medical, she had simply mentioned that another staff member had already done it. And any tricorder readings captured were changed in seconds thanks to a program she had written. Jim thought it quite funny that a good ten years before he had done so, someone else had already cheated.

They were all annoyed, but knew that any repercussions landed on her would most likely result in things becoming strained with the Vulcans. They also couldn't do anything because the entire crew, the Alpha shift especially, had made it clear that they wouldn't be going anywhere without her. So after a written warning was placed in her file, that most likely would be ignored, they all had one last dinner on Earth before assembling back onboard the ship, a week after arriving.


	8. More than just a Navigator

A/N: Here is the last chapter. Enjoy.

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They were now on the other side of Littaner. After stopping to inform Bimbge that Spock was ok, and finding out that they had figured out Sam within seconds of meeting her, they headed off. That had been three months earlier. Jim watched as Bones and Sam ate together on the other side of the mess hall. He still hadn't pried out the story of how they got together. He would eventually, that much he knew.

Bones had closed his eyes, and was trying to feed himself breakfast by touch-telepathy alone and seeing through Sam's eyes. Sam's left hand was touching the tips of Bones' right, her right had a spoon of something on it that left a trail of orange goo around his mouth, making them both laugh. Jim joined in, until his First Officer spoke up

"That would be most beneficial, Captain, should something happen to Dr McCoy and he is unable to use his hands or he has lost his sight."

Jim looked over at the male half-Vulcan, the joy he had felt deflating, "Or they could just be having fun, Spock. Granted if they managed to perfect that," he waved his hand in their general direction to see Bones try and direct her hand to clean the mess, "It would be amazing, but for now, I think they're just having some fun."

Bones' efforts at directing her hand were only to succeed in making it worse. He could hear a few others chuckle at the sight. It was good for his friend to loosen up.

Just then the lights flickered and the temperature dropped enough that he could see his breath for a moment. He breathed out again, and a fog formed in front of his mouth. He looked around the mess hall as the silence registered. The lights never flickered unless there was major damage. Everyone else was still and had remained in their seats.

Except for Winchester. She had stood, stepping clear of the table and pulling on her gloves. She then picked up a salt shaker, broke it open and held in her hand. She was looking around the room, her eyes never resting on anything for more than a few seconds. Jim saw another person standing, and Winchester's roaming eyes latched onto them. It was Ensign Sable, a Thesian that had joined them after their stopover at Earth. It, (no one knew if it was male or female, and Sable hadn't said) had started to advance on a young female Lt, Tig'san.

"Hey!" Winchester called out suddenly, making the Ensgin turn to her. "Leave him."

Jim wondered what she was talking about, until the Ensign spoke. Jim had spoken to Sable a couple of times, and he sounded nothing like she did then.

"Why, when he has so many arms to use?" The Thesian had four arms, and Scotty had found them very useful over the past several months.

 _Well, that answered the gender question._ He thought. _But what the hell was going on?_

Winchester suddenly held out her hand, "Spock, don't!"

Spock was still standing beside him, not behind Sable, as her hand was indicating. But it had the desired effect, making Sable turn around. Then with the speed at which only a Vulcan can move, she raced over to him and shoved a fist full of salt into his mouth.

Jim watched in shock as something exploded out the back of the Ensign. It vanished so fast all he could see of it was a grey-black blur.

"It's ok, you're ok now, it's gone, you're safe." He heard Winchester murmur over and over again as she laid Sable on the floor, Bones wiping his face as he rushed over to help the man. Jim was shocked to see black goo running from his mouth, eyes, nose and ears. He looked to Spock, but he looked as shocked as he did, as did everyone else in the room. He went over and was about to demand an answer when a sound came from her. She reached behind her and pulled something from her back pocket.

She took a moment to look at the screen before flipping it open and answering, placing it so it covered from her ear to her mouth. It looked like a communicator, but not. "What have you got, Dean?" She reached out to the Ensign's face as she listened, "Because I'm older, and I asked first." She growled as she wiped some of the goo onto her glove-covered fingertips. She suddenly winced at the reply, before sighing deeply.

She took a breath as she rubbed her fingers and thumb together, smearing the black substance. "Ectoplasm, I've got ectoplasm." She stood and looked at him, then, "We've got one seriously pissed off spirit on board."


End file.
